Annabeth's Tips For A Good Writer
by Minibeth
Summary: Percy needs help writing a story and asks Wise Girl for help. These are some things that annoy me when reading a fanfiction, some signs that tell me not to read a fanfic, or just some generic tips. While this is not specifically for Percy Jackson and can actually apply to most stories, the prologue is Percy Jackson related. I'm available for Beta reading! PM or review if you wish.
1. Prologue

This is my way of keeping my fanfic on here. Credits and thanks to Keblamstar for giving me this way to officially call my 'fanfic' a story and for liking this enough to help me out. I'm sorry, i'm more of an Annabeth person and I struggle with being carefree and playful enough to write about Percy. Anyways, without further ado, the Prologue.

* * *

Percy slammed his head on the table. Paul had given his class a writing assignment. He had to write a successful story and would be graded on it. While Percy usually wouldn't worry, he was close to failing Paul's class and that would make his mom upset with him. Percy never wanted to make his mom upset, especially not upset enough to not bake blue chocolate chip cookies. They had gone out so he was alone in the house, and he couldn't even ask Paul for help with the assignment.

So far, all he had written was, "Once upon a time,". Percy groaned. He would never get this done! _Once upon a time...teher ws a boy...naemd Percy. In the 21st centry teher ways a boy named Percy. Percy was waesmoe. awsome? awsom. I think its awsom. In the 21st centry teher ways a awsom boy named Percy. AGHHH!_

Percy slammed his head on the table again. And again. And again. Suddenly, he had a genius idea. Who better to help him than Wise Girl herself? She was at Camp anyways. Percy fished a drachma out of his pocket and went to the bathroom.

Percy turned the shower on and faced it towards the wall so the droplets bounced off and formed a mist. A small rainbow appeared in the mist, and Percy threw his drachma in.

"O' Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering." The mist shimmered. "Annabeth Chase, Camp Half Blood, Long Island." The mist shimmered again, showing Annabeth with some kids.

"Delta-" Annabeth started.

"The triangle thingy?" A kid Percy didn't know interrupted. _He must be new,_ Percy thought.

"Yes, the triangle shaped letter. Good job, Thomas." _So his name's Thomas._

Percy coughed lightly and Annabeth turned around, her face breaking into a smile. "Percy!"

"Hey, Annabeth," Percy said. _Annabeth looks so beautiful as ever..._"I kind of need help. I'm at my house. It's an emergency." Percy had been moving backwards, and he tripped on the slippery floor from the water and fell on top of the sink, knocking everything down. "Holy Hera!" As he flailed, his arm swiped over the image of Annabeth and the Iris Message disconnected. Percy got up, noticing that the image had cone, and sighed. He turned off the running shower, put everything back, and dried the room off. Percy walked back to his room and tried to work on his story some more.

Three minutes later, the door slammed open. "PERCY? WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU OKAY?" Percy jumped.

"I'm right upstairs, Wise Girl!" He yelled down the stairs. Annabeth ran in, her dagger in hand. She looked confused when she saw him sitting at his desk.

"What happened Percy?" Now Percy was confused.

"What? Nothing happened."

"What was that crash when you Iris Messaged me?"

Percy looked sheepish. "Um..I slipped on the wet floor and knocked the stuff on the sink down."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, exasperated. "I drove past the speed limit for this? What was your emergency then, Seaweed Brain?"

"I can't write this story Paul gave for homework. I need help, and he's not here. Please, Annabeth?" He pleaded, giving her puppy dog eyes.

Annabeth sighed. "Fine. But you owe me for coming all the way here and making me worried that you got attacked."

"Deal," Percy replied smugly. "Now help me?"

Annabeth pulled over a chair. "Okay, Seaweed brain, so..."


	2. The Summary

These are some things that annoy me when reading a fanfiction, some signs that tell me not to read a fanfic, or just some generic tips. While this is not specifically for Percy Jackson and can actually apply to most stories, I pretty much only read Percy Jackson fanfics and the examples will be using things that use Percy Jackson characters, cliche fanfics, etc. I hope you enjoy this and I hope to see some more stories that I would definitely read!

* * *

"Fine, Seaweed Brain. So...This is what you need to know."

* * *

**1) We _do_ judge books by their covers.**

Ever heard of the saying, "Don't judge a book by their cover"? Well, honestly, everybody does it. And this applies to fanfictions.

The 'cover' I'm talking about is the summary of a story. The summary is supposed to draw readers in, tell them what the story is about, or give reader a little sneak peek to entice them.

So why is the summary important? The way most fanfiction readers find stories they think are good are by scrolling through a list of fanfiction summaries. For me, as I read the summaries I scan for certain things that pretty much scream "I have potential!" Some of the fanfics that have all of the basic requirements for a good story I skip over, some I read. It all depends on the reader, and so if you do have all of these and don't have the followers you want, don't despair. Some people want to read specific types of stories, some just aren't interested. Think of stories like a love interest. For some, your story is just not their type.

There are a few main parts of a summary and here are what you need to have in each:(If you continue reading this, you'll find I like lists)

Title

The title is part of every story. It gives hints as to what the stories are about. Some of the hints flat out say what they're talking about, and some are just one word titles that may be the main point of the story-but you'll just have to read it to see it. Either is fine, but the title must have something to do with the story. Titles like :P  and '.' are definitely not encouraged and will most likely attract fewer readers.

Though title content _is_ important in some ways, there are other elements that are just as important, if not more. This example title, percy jackson is so awsom is definitely missing a lot of the requirements for an "attractive" story. First, capitalization. This one thing has bothered me so much in some stories. I have like, capitalization OCD attacks when I see titles like those. It would look better if it read, Percy Jackson is So Awsom.The content itself is ok, if you're writing about the awesomeness of Percy Jackson, so it depends on the story. Then, there's spelling. Notice 'awesome' is spelled wrong. The title should be changed to, Percy Jackson is So Awesome. Lastly, there should be no periods at the end of titles. Commas are okay if it is used in the right way, but periods should never be used in titles unless in abbreviations or things like Mrs. Blank.

The Body

The main part of the summary. The summary is a person, and just like a person, even the seemingly least important thing should be there because it never looks right when somebody's bellybutton is missing. Some essential 'body parts' are the same as the title's requirement for an 'attractive story'. Punctuation, grammar, spelling, capitalization, and content.

First of all, content. Content should accurately represent the story. It should not be too short either, three to five sentences is pretty good. Just as with the title, all stories are different in some way unless plagiarized, which is NOT GOOD, and therefore all summaries are different in some way.  
Please, please, please, do not TYPE LIKE THIS. IF WE ARE READING YOUR SUMMARY WE WILL SEE WHATEVER YOU WRITE, CAPITAL LETTERS JUST SHOCK PEOPLE.  
You can ask a question in a summary like, "what do you think happens?". That itself is acceptable, but "Read to find out!" is kind of obvious, and so please do not write that in a summary. It's like you're saying people are too stupid so you have to tell them to read, which is offensive and will turn some readers away. Some people have said that they disagree with this however, so there are differing opinions on this one(Catsrawesome).  
You can also give them a sneak peek of the story, just copy and paste a few quotes. Or, you can just blatantly say something like, Percy is gone and Annabeth is missing him. You can gather what happens in that fanfic.  
Also, do not write "I'm no good at summaries, just read!"(The Capitious Critic) or "first fanfic, go easy!" Well, you could if you want, but you're metaphorically wasting your breath because most people couldn't care less if it was your first or not, and if you can't write a good summary, you probably can't write a good story no matter how amazing your idea is.  
Lastly, do not write an amazing summary to gain followers or readers but write a story that has nothing to do with the summary at all. Personally, I have never come across this yet, but I would hate it if I did. (Thanks, green angel01)

Moving on. Here is an example Chaos summary:

Annabeth cheats percy on with his arrigant half brother and chaos finds him and gives him a home wtih his friends, when he has to save the world, again, can he bear going back to Camp where all his best and worst memories reside?

Ok. So whats the problem, doctor? First of all, capitalization. 'percy' and 'chaos' should be capitalized. Next. grammar. 'Annabeth cheats percy on with his arrigant half brother' should be 'Annabeth cheats on Percy with his arrogant half brother'. After that, spelling. 'Arrigant' is 'arrogant' and 'wtih' is with. Lastly, punctuation. It needs a period _somewhere_ and it needs to get rid of some commas. If I had fixed it until it was at least better, I would have changed it to:

When Annabeth cheats on Percy with his arrogant half-brother, Percy is heartbroken. He runs away only to be found by Chaos who takes him in and trains him. Percy is a new person. He has new friends, a new life. When the world is in danger- again- and Percy has to save it-again-can Percy bear returning home to where all his best and worst memories reside?

Sure, I added some things, but you'll notice that they still follow all of the requirements.

Rating

So the rating...well, there's not much to say about this one. Just rate it accurately, make sure you read the chart if you're not sure. But only add those "Rated T because i'm paranoid" things if necessary. Especially if you have a really good summary, it breaks the reader out of the feeling the summary leaves behind back into the world. If anybody complains that it's rated too low, that's ok, you're the writer. Just change it.

* * *

That's all for today. Remember, this is what I think is annoying, wrong, or could be better. If you have a story that contradicts anything I said was not good, and you have a ton of followers, great! Congratulations! Tell me, I'd love to be proven wrong. I don't want to give false information, I don't want to tell writers with potential to do the wrong thing, I don't want to cost those who read this. If you have anything that annoyed you that I didn't mention, comment or PM me! And thanks for taking the time to read!


	3. Formatting and Structure

Hey guys. Thanks to all those that followed, favorited, commented, etc. Love ya!

Disclaimer:I don't own my OTP Percabeth or PJO/HOO

* * *

"Ok. Gottit. Summary. Write a good one. With good grammar. Cool. Thanks, bye!"

Annabeth laughed. "We're not done yet, Seaweed Brain. I have tons more to tell you."

Percy groaned.

"What are you going to write about?" Annabeth asked.

"My quest of awesomeness when I was twelve."

"_Our_ quest of awesomeness."_  
_

"So you agree it was awesome?"

"Of course it was! I was in it."

"True."

* * *

**2\. Structure and Format**

Structure and format is an important part of writing. Some ways just look prettier than others. It makes it easier to read. I know, I know, I've been talking about it looking pretty a lot, but it's true. Writing is a form of art. People like the pretty ones more.

Here's what Percy wrote in his little story.

I was twelve and young and awsom. And life was pretty awsom back then. I didn't even knw who was ataking me! Anyways, there was this realy mean teachur, her name was Mrs. Dods. Turns out she was a Kindly One. That's a nice name for a Fury. Annabeth calls that a "Eufemisome." Isn't there an instrument called a euphamisme? No..thats a Ufonium. Sriusly, how are ppl going to be able to tell that apart? Well, anyways, Grover my best and only bulied budy comes and says, "Hey, wait for me when we get home?" But of course, I don't trust him bcuz I herd Mr. Brunner and him talking about me behind my back once and it didn't sound good. So I was like, "Sure! ok!" And of course, he went to the bathrom and I ditched him. It's not my falt, how did I know he was suposed to protect me? Anyways, I get home and Mom takes me to Montauk. Escape Smely Gab for a while. I had this really weird dreem, like an eegle and a pegsus I think were fiting. I wake up and there's a storm and Grover's at the door! He tels mom two go too the car and drive really fast and she does, and Grover's really nervous. Then I find out he has fury legs and HOVES! Then our car crashes and I see this ugly guy with a nose ring and hrns. Mom tels me to go past the tree, btu then she kinda dyes and I kill the monster thingy, drag furry caross the tree line and passes out. Then I wake up and theres this girl whose just like, "Whats going on?" and i think she's pretty (It's you, Annabeth!) so Im really confused AND im staring at a pretty girl AND I'm about to pass out. So Im like, i dunno, then I black out again. When I wake up shes nt ther butt then I go outside and she looks at me and is like, "u drool when you slep." and im like thats nice.

By this time, I cut Percy's writing off because it has some major problems. We can deal with the other ones in another chapter, but right now, I'm going to focus on the format and structure.

-Never format it like:

**1\. **_I was twelve and young and awsom. And life was pretty awsom back then. I didn't even knw who was ataking me! Anyways, there was this realy mean teachur, her name was Mrs. Dods. Turns out she was a Kindly One. That's a nice name for a Fury. Annabeth calls that a "Eufemisome." Isn't there an instrument called a euphamisme? No..thats a Ufonium. Sriusly, how are ppl going to be able to tell that apart? Well, anyways, Grover my best and only bulied budy comes and says, "Hey, wait for me when we get home?" But of course, I don't trust him bcuz I herd Mr. Brunner and him talking about me behind my back once and it didn't sound good. So I was like, "Sure! ok!" And of course, he went to the bathrom and I ditched him. It's not my falt, how did I know he was suposed to protect me? Anyways, I get home and Mom takes me to Montauk. Escape Smely Gab for a while. I had this really weird dreem, like an eegle and a pegsus I think were fiting. I wake up and there's a storm and Grover's at the door! He tels mom two go too the car and drive really fast and she does, and Grover's really nervous. Then I find out he has fury legs and HOVES! Then our car crashes and I see this ugly guy with a nose ring and hrns. Mom tels me to go past the tree, btu then she kinda dyes and I kill the monster thingy, drag furry caross the tree line and passes out. Then I wake up and theres this girl whose just like, "Whats going on?" and i think she's pretty (It's you, Annabeth!) so Im really confused AND im staring at a pretty girl AND I'm about to pass out. So Im like, i dunno, then I black out again. When I wake up shes nt ther butt then I go outside and she looks at me and is like, "u drool when you slep." and im like thats nice._

It makes it hard to read sometimes and generally is just...not good.

**2\. **_I was twelve and young and awsom. And life was pretty awsom back then. I didn't even knw who was ataking me! Anyways, there was this realy mean teachur, her name_

_was Mrs. Dods. Turns out she was a Kindly One. That's a nice name for a Fury. Annabeth calls that a "Eufemisome." Isn't there an instrument called a euphamisme? No..thats a_

_Ufonium. Sriusly, how are ppl going to be able to tell that apart? Well, anyways, Grover my best and only bulied budy comes and says, "Hey, wait for me when we get home?"_

_But of course, I don't trust him bcuz I herd Mr. Brunner and him talking about me behind my back once and it didn't sound good. So I was like, "Sure! ok!" And of course, he_

_went to the bathrom and I ditched him. It's not my falt, how did I know he was suposed to protect me? Anyways, I get home and Mom takes me to Montauk. Escape Smely_

_Gab for a while. I had this really weird dreem, like an eegle and a pegsus I think were fiting. I wake up and there's a storm and Grover's at the door! He tels mom two go too_

_the car and drive really fast and she does, and Grover's really nervous. Then I find out he has fury legs and HOVES! Then our car crashes and I see this ugly guy with a nose ring_

_and hrns. Mom tels me to go past the tree, btu then she kinda dyes and I kill the monster thingy, drag furry caross the tree line and passes out. Then I wake up and theres this_

_girl whose just like, "Whats going on?" and i think she's pretty (It's you, Annabeth!) so Im really confused AND im staring at a pretty girl AND I'm about to pass out. So Im like, i_

_dunno, then I black out again. When I wake up shes nt ther butt then I go outside and she looks at me and is like, "u drool when you slep." and im like thats nice._

I've seen some like this before. I don't know if it's a problem with the document type they used to upload or something, but it REALLY doesn't look good. The reader often gets cut off in the middle of a sentence, and it breaks them what I now refer to as the 'reading reverie'. Search it up if you don't know what that means. I can't get lost in stories formatted like this unlike all of the PJO/HOO books I've read and some exceptional fanfictions.

**3\. **Then there are the computer errors(thanks, Kablamstar, again). They look like:

insert/dtth/enter/hey, percy/shift/hpts:diifg/adh

insert/dtth/enter/oh, hey annabeth/shift/hpts:diifg/adh

insert/dtth/enter/what are you doing?/shift/hpts:diifg/adh

insert/dtth/enter/idk, just random stuff/shift/hpts:diifg/adh

insert/dtth/enter/ok cool/shift/hpts:diifg/adh

insert/dtth/enter/im bored, wise girl./shift/hpts:diifg/adh

It's probably a document type problem. I know you can't really see this when you upload and people don't really tell you when this happens since most just quit reading. I suggest using the copy and paste option-it works for me.

These are the bad ones I've seen often enough for me to remember it.

* * *

So how are you supposed to do it? Each topic should be separated into a different paragraph, even though it is only one line long. Usually topics are events during the same time period and details within that period.

_I was twelve and young and awsom. And life was pretty awsom back then. I didn't even knw who was ataking me!_

_ Anyways, there was this realy mean teachur, her name was Mrs. Dods. Turns out she was a Kindly One. That's a nice name for a Fury. Annabeth calls that a "Eufemisome." Isn't there an instrument called a euphamisme? No..thats a Ufonium. Sriusly, how are ppl going to be able to tell that apart? _

_Well, anyways, Grover my best and only bulied budy comes and says,__"Hey, wait for me when we get home?" __But of course, I don't trust him bcuz I herd Mr. Brunner and him talking about me behind my back once and it didn't sound good. So I was like, "Sure! ok!" And of course, he went to the bathrom and I ditched him. It's not my falt, how did I know he was suposed to protect me?_

_ Anyways, I get home and Mom takes me to Montauk. Escape Smely Gab for a while. I had this really weird dreem, like an eegle and a pegsus I think were fiting. I wake up and there's a storm and Grover's at the door! He tels mom two go too the car and drive really fast. _

_She does, and Grover's really nervous. Then I find out he has fury legs and HOVES!_

_ Then our car crashes and I see this ugly guy with a nose ring and hrns. Mom tels me to go past the tree, btu then she kinda dyes and I kill the monster thingy, drag furry caross the tree line and passes out. _

_Then I wake up and theres this girl whose just like, "Whats going on?" and i think she's pretty (It's you, Annabeth!) so Im really confused AND im staring at a pretty girl AND I'm about to pass out. So Im like, i dunno, then I black out again. _

_When I wake up shes nt ther butt then I go outside and she looks at me and is like, "u drool when you slep." and im like thats nice._

Usually, when you have quotes, you should make it its own little paragraph. In this one there's no need because there are only two quotes. Separating them into separate paragraphs are usually used for conversations.

For example,

_"Hey," Annabeth said to Percy._

_"Hey."_

_"Are you going to see that movie with us tonight?"_

_"I can't," Percy said. "My mom's baking blue chocolate chip cookies."_

_"And that's why you can't go?"_

_"You should never miss out on Mom's cookies!"_

If you find that you have a super long paragraph, see how many time zones there are. If there is only one, then try to separate it by subject. Still only one, then there should be nothing to change and it should be okay.

Then, if you find that you have a long paragraph with two different time zones but the switch is within one sentence, such as the line,

_He tels mom two go too the car and drive really fast and she does, and Grover's really nervous_

The two time zones/events are when he tells Sally to go into the car and before, then when they're in the car and afterwards. What you do here is you have to make it into two sentences, and two paragraphs.

_He tels mom two go too the car and drive really fast._

_She does, and Grover's really nervous._

Of course, you should tweak it a bit to make it sound better and more...flowy, is that a word? no. Oh well, my language arts teacher uses it sometimes so I'm going to use it now. The sentences should flow together. When you read it, you shouldn't hesitate or pause, or anything except at the period. You shouldn't feel like something's wrong. Of course, I didn't do that there, but this is a structure and formatting chapter, so we can go to that later.

So that's it on structure and format for now!

* * *

**This is just a general 'lesson' on formatting. There may be a time where there was something I didn't address, and then you can PM or ask me in the comments.**

Thanks to all my readers, etc. Tell me if you've seen any other weird types of formatting, anything else I should add, or something like that. Tell me if you liked it, didn't, anything you agreed/disagreed with. And anything you want me to explain, talk, or rant about in the next chapter. Thanks!


	4. Characterization

Thanks guys, for reading. And PrincessofFlames for the complaints(I say that as a good thing) that I'm going to talk about for the next few chapters. Anything else? I don't think so.

Oh yeah. I don't own PJO/ HOO.

* * *

"Better," Annabeth nodded, more satisfied with Percy's structure. "What else do you have?"

_"_I have,

_At capm, all of hte gurls wer faling for Percy. He was hot, col, msulcrau(muscular), and a Son of Poseidon, one of the big three. Espeshully a certain dauter of Athena named Anabth.-"_

_"_Stop! First of all, when we were twelve you were, skinny, average, weak, slow, and insecure. And second of all, I liked you, but I wasn't 'falling' for you. And the other girls _definitely_ weren't."

"How do you know?"

"I'm no daughter of Aphrodite, but all girls know."

"Suuree they do."

* * *

**3\. Hey, People!**

So what was wrong with Percy's description of himself? Everything. First of all, he had no actual details such as black hair and green eyes. Second of all, theres almost no way that is true of _any_ new camper(I can believe the older ones that have trained and fought longer have six packs and muscles and stuff, but not the new campers). And lastly, it's completely untrue.

These idealistic people have names. They're called Mary Sues(or Gary Sues for the guys). These are the six pack without even trying, or excersizing, unnaturally hot, nearly invincible people. They have all these cool powers, blessed by all the Olympians or something, and can like, read minds and weird stuff. Even Percy and Annabeth get hurt.

Read "Attack of the Plot Bunnies" by Nightmare Before Halloween and "When Sues Attack" by Fandoms Foreva if you have time. They may seem badly written at first glance, but they're meant to be parodies and are pretty accurate. I have most of my 'Mary Sue' information from "When Sues Attack" because I had no idea what they were before I read that fanfiction.

If you don't have tme to read it at all, and I'm sure you do since you're reading this now, so if you are too lazy to read it, here's a general description of a Mary Sue and other things you should do/not do.

1\. Mary Sues are perfect in every way and practically undefeated. They're beautiful, sometimes smart, powerful, and everything comes easily to them.

2\. Don't give them weird names unless it's a parody or you make fun of it in your story or something.

3\. Don't contradict yourself

These are the three main things to remember about characters. Number 3 means, don't give them straight hair in one chapter, forget, then say that they have wavy hair in the next chapter. It really confuses a reader. Or at least this reader.

Don't make a character completely opposite from the actual character, unless you specifically say OOC/AU or like fem! whatever.

Be detailed in a character description though. It's a bit tough. You don't want to describe something for so long that it bores the reader out of his/her mind, but you don't want to just be like, _he was hot_.

Basically, make your character at least realistic and descriptive.

Another thing is the person's personality throughout the whole story. Just because you say Percy's funny doesn't mean he is. You have to make him crack a few jokes to support the claim. Just because you say Thalia is violent doesn't mean she is. You can't go,

_Thalia is pretty violent. _

And in the next chapter:

_When we were crossing the street, she helped an old lady across the street. She then proceeded to walk her home and opened the door for her._

You see what I mean?

* * *

I feel like I forgot about a ton of stuff in this chapter, so if you can, just remind me! And as always, what do you hate/love when reading, what do you disagree with, and thanks for reading! Sorry for this short chapter. It was like 'Test and workload' week at school. I know, I know, stupid excuses. I can't help it though...sorry!


	5. Quotes and Notes

Thanks for the support, guys! And special shout-out to Princess of Flames for the "Notes" part. Since both of these subjects were too long for a short message but too short for their own chapter, I put them together into one chapter. Enjoy!

I wish PJO was mine. Its not. It should be my Christmas present or something. Except that i'm an atheist. But who says you can't still get presents?

* * *

_"Say hello to the pink poodle! ," Grover said._

_" But I don't wanna say hi to the pink poodle" __**(A/N. I really didn't wanna say hi to the pink poodle. It growled at me.)**_

_"say hi" Annabeth ordered. "i said hi to the poodle."_

_"_Oh my gods, Percy! You made like five mistakes in four sentences!

Percy threw his hands up in exasperation. "What did I do now?"

"Let me explain..."

* * *

**4.1. Quotes and Notes Part 1: Quotes**

Percy made pretty much every quote mistake you can make. Well, there are a few others, but they'll be addressed too. Here are the mistakes per quote.

_1\. "Say hello to the pink poodle! ," Grover said._

In this quote, there is a space right before the comma at the end of the quote. There should be no space. It should be, _"Say hello to the pink poodle!"_

_2\. " But I don't wanna say hi to the pink poodle" __**  
**_

Here, Percy put a space _in front of_ the quote and he didn't have a period or comma. _"But I don't wanna say hi to the pink poodle."__**  
**_

_3\. "say hi" Annabeth ordered. "i said hi to the poo__dle."_

Annabeth's quote is separated into two different parts. When this happens, there should be a comma after the first quote right in front of the quotation mark. Also, he didn't capitalize the first letter of her quote. If it was done correctly it should have been,

_"Say hi," Annabeth ordered. "I said hi to the poodle."_

Better!

Now here are some things that were _not _in my example but are important nonetheless.

When you make a quote inside a quote, you should use the apostrophe signs. For example,

_Piper said, "Jason was like, 'yeah, she's kinda pretty.' Can you believe it?"_

Also, notice that there's a space between the quote. _Piper said,(space)"Jason was like,..."_

After each quote there should be a punctuation mark. If you continue after a quote with something like:

_"It was so awesome," Grover said._

There should be, and in this example has, a comma between the quotation mark and the last word.

_"It was so awesome," Grover said._

_"It was," Percy agreed, "Remember when you ate our hacky sack apple?"_

_"I was hungry!"_

_"It was hilarious."_

You see? A punctuation mark in front of each quotation mark.

I shouldn't have to write this, I learned this in first grade. But for all those writers out there who struggle with this, I hope you understand it a little better after reading this.

* * *

**4.2. Quotes and Notes Part 2: Notes.**

If you were wondering, this is about authors' notes. Authors notes are helpful in finding out what the author is thinking, but most times I honestly don't care what the author is thinking.

* * *

This is the type of author's note that really bothers me the most:

_" But I don't wanna say hi to the pink poodle" __**(A/N. I really didn't wanna say hi to the pink poodle. It growled at me.)**_

Though I sometimes couldn't care less what the author is thinking, it _is _helpful sometimes. Maybe a little background on the story, a little clarification. But seriously, when I'm reading I don't want to be interrupted by something saying, **(A/N Sorry if this offends anyone)** worse, **(A/N Hahahahahahaha, sorry inside joke.)**, or even worse, **(Read the note at the top!)**

So if I do have something to say, where should I write it? There are several places. At the bottom, in the end, at the top. This is the perfect place to write your own thoughts where it doesn't bother or mess the reader up.

What if you REALLY need to put it there? Worried that your reader won't get the joke? Or specific to that part of the story? Put a footnote.

A footnote is a real author's way of writing ANs. Like, An Abundance of Katherines. One characteristic of that story is that there are footnotes _everywhere_, and I mean EVERYWHERE. And its a great story. You know why? Because he doesn't interrupt your reading with a diagram of a graph in the middle of a room that he actually put in the author's note.

Footnotes are little symbols at the top right corner of words or sentences. It symbolizes that the author wants to say something about this word or sentence. Then, put the author's note at the bottom of the page with a matching symbol.

In An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, the type of footnote he uses is the one that looks like an exponential sign. You know, those little floating number twos** in math? I'm not sure how to type that on the computer, so an equally good way to write footnotes is using an asterisk*. When you have more than one footnote, most books use another number, like the first footnote is [1] and the second footnote is [2]. You could write your footnotes like that too. If you don't want to, you can just use multiple asterisks[1].

When you use an asterisk as a symbol, make sure you aren't going to have so many footnotes it looks like************. If you find you have more than three footnotes, I suggest using [1], [2], [3]. The asterisk is Control 8 on the keyboard and the brackets([]) are just above the enter sign and a little to the left on normal keyboards.

* * *

Then there are the other typed of ANs. The ones that take an entire chapter and make the rader depressed because you know a hiatus is coming. Or an excuse.

These ANs aren't allowed, I believe, but I appreciate them. To me, its better than just a fanfic dropping without any warning at all. At least there was a short note. But honestly, your readers in the past aren't your only readers. There will be a day when new people start reading your fanfics, engrossed in the story, and then they stumble upon a chapter with only an AN. Its annoying. So if you go on hiatus, a break for those who don't know, or you write an excuse, please at least take down the chapter after you decide to restart again, thanks!

* * *

*Like this. The little star sign is an asterisk.

**Who knows what that's from?

[1] Using another type of footnote symbol is okay I guess, but it doesn't look as good.

Ummm...so...hope you enjoyed. This time I want feedback on my story in general. Such as, is this a good story, a good idea, did you like it, what can I improve, is it accurate, etc. Thanks!


	6. Realisticality and POVs

As I run out of bigger points, my chapters will contain more and more...mini chapters, I guess you could say. Or subjects. So every chapter will probably have multiple parts to it from now on, most likely with zero relation to each other. Like 'Quotes and Notes'. They just happened to rhyme and i was like BINGO! But anyways, here is compound chapter #2(including the last chapter)

Disclaimer: Annabeth is not mine. Percy is not mine. They belong to a middle aged man. I am a tween teen. Is that a thing? Not really a tween anymore, but mentally not a teen at all. Sorry, I tend to rant and get off topic.

* * *

**5.1- I Can't Believe This!**

Fanfiction is a great tool. You can create your own stories with your own ideas based on characters and events already made for you. It's the perfect way to improve and share your own writing even if you aren't creative or skilled enough to create your own characters and situations yet. But everything has a limit.

Fanfiction should not be completely out of control crazy. I understand if it's an AU. I understand if you want to write a story about Punk Percy or Girly Annabeth. I don't mind(as long as you write it in your summary, just to warn people). What I do mind is if something is so unbelievably...unbelievable that the reader is just like, _what?,_or that it just...completely doesn't make sense.

Now, some things may make perfect sense to one person and completely lose another. That's okay. I find it's difficult to write down all your ideas if you don't even understand your own ideas yet, especially if you aren't a great writer like me. So this is not to discourage you, but I hope you understand what I mean when I say that some things are too rare to happen, even for the Percy Jackson fandom. Here is one example, sorry if your story has this, but I'm saying this because it makes me and possibly others dislike a story.

ALL of Percy's friends from school being demigods. And not just that, but him going to school with them for years and never noticing. Even Percy's not oblivious. Then, all of the Seven or at least 3 demigods, especially if it includes Percy, Annabeth, or both, going to the same school and not getting attacked by monsters within a week. Then, the gods giving ALL of them houses in New York, or more often, a mansion together. That is totally decked out. I mean, I can believe if they lived together, in a large house. But in a big white mansion designed by their parents who are so stubborn that they hate even admitting they needed help from demigods much less feel the need to thank them? Hades, no.

Now, this was one example of a more canon story, one that follows the books more. These are easily called ridiculous since if they're demigods and if the story is possible within the books(Chaos stories are not possible within the books, sorry), then readers tend to subconsciously decide that it must be exactly the same or perfectly non-OOC and Uncle Rick level writing. But how about AUs?

An example of a common unbelievable scenario is that they are mortals and live with their parents, also mortals, and they have to explain why they all suddenly have names of Greek deities. Some say that their parents liked Greek mythology or whatever. Others say that it just happened to be that way. Even others say that those are their nicknames and they have real names they never tell anybody because of some random crazy reason(I thought of all these off the top of my head, not from a story!). But a very wise reader(belated eloquence) once reviewed my story saying,

"...everyone seems to try to explain a familial relationship among the children of the Big Three which often doesn't add anything to the story, or creates some weird connection that makes you question the reality of the situation...their godly bloodline doesn't mean that much to the characters unless they are from the same parent...Would it be so wrong to have them from different families?"

There is nothing worse than the reader questioning your story. Heres the other part of the review that directly talks about the mortal god name explaining thing.

"..explain why the gods all have the names of Greek gods...explanations are usually pretty weak and make it seem weirder that the characters have these name traits rather than leaving it up to coincidence"

And, in my opinion, the single most beautiful gem I have ever had a reviewer write to me(since it is so true and I couldn't even form this thought into words),

"...the less you explain about some things sometimes help make it seem more real, because the reader can draw their own conclusions so that it makes sense in their own mind instead of trying to confuse them with loosely connected strings."

So the entire mini-lesson in a nutshell: Make your story realistic, and only write it if you believe it.

* * *

**5.2. POVS**

Point of view people! This isn't a really major thing since there aren't that many problems I've seen, so here are the things you need to watch out for:

-Constantly switching. Don't write a paragraph, switch POVs, then write another paragraph, and switch back. It's just confusing.

-Finish a POV before you start a new one.(Princess of Flames) That means that one event should have ONE POV.

-One chapter should have at most 2 POVs, 3 if it's a REALLY long chapter.

-Try not to overlap POVs. What I mean is that you write about Percy and Annabeth at a party from Percy's POV, then write a entire new chapter from Annabeth's POV. It slows down the pace of the story and isn't really needed. But if you really have to, sure. If you really want to, fine.

That was probably the shortest lesson ever, but there ya go.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed, again, I'm really sorry about the line breaks. I hope they allow easier access to line breaks again, but in the meantime, sorry. Enjoy your winter break!(Everyone has that-right?)


	7. Pace and Encouragement

Disclaimer:PJO is not mine. This is getting annoying. Does anyone even read or care about these?

* * *

"Percy, your story is _not_ that good."

"Paul said the first chapter was amazing!"

"It went way too fast."

"But Paul said that the pace was fine!"

"He's your stepdad, I corrected it, and its simply better than usual. He's pretty much obligated to say your story was good."

"That's good enough for me. I'm going to treat myself to some blue cookies now. Wanna join?"

"...fine."

* * *

**6.1** **Slow and Steady? Nah.**

Is it just me or was that the worst title ever? It's not just me.

Pace. Pace is a VERY important part of your story. The plot shouldn't be too fast, not too slow, but kind of...in between. Here are some things to look out for:

-Every chapter should have at least one, at most two, crucial events. Sure, in an Annabeth Goes to Goode story you could talk about every single class in one chapter, but you'll find it'll turn out to be a gigantic chapter. Plus, if anything is going to happen during recess, I suggest you split the events into Before recess(and possibly during recess), After recess(and if you didn't do it before, you could put the during recess events now), and if you didn't put recess in either of them you could put its very own chapter in between as long as it's not a short chapter. If you put emphasis and talk in detail about the classes, that could be its own event. Or, if you made a vague remark about boring classes that they didn't pay attention in(which Annabeth would never do), Annabeth being introduced to the school could be considered a crucial event.

-Chapter length is also important. You want every chapter to be about the same length, a few outliers are fine, and you want each chapter to have at least 1000 words. 100 word chapters are not acceptable, 1 paragraph chapters are not acceptable.

-Time zones. Chapters should be a day to a week apart. Always write something like, _the next day,_ or, _a week later._ Some could be a month apart if their day to day lives were the same during those months. Each chapter should also have generally the same amount of days between them as all the other differences. If one or two chapters were a day apart, make sure _all_ of them are a day apart. You could be a day apart, a day apart, then a week apart, as long as you make it clear how long it's been so that it doesn't confuse the reader. Never suddenly skip to the end of the year, either. Don't have chapters days apart then weeks apart, then suddenly after all the important events are over, it's next year already. If you want to continue the story about their lives a year or a few years or decades later, make a sequel.

-The point of Climax. The biggest part. Harry fighting Voldemort. Percy killing Kronos or fighting Gaea. The biggest things. Don't make it too soon or too late. It's an important part, but difficult to define and difficult to help on.

Anything else? That's it for me...

* * *

**6.2 Now For a Bit of Encouragement**

Guys, I'm not trying to make you feel bad, or to make you suddenly find all these mistakes in your fanfics. I'm trying to vent. And help you improve your fanfics and hopefully help you gain a few more supporters, but mostly vent and complain and rant to random people I don't know.

Honestly, most fanfics are great. Some have basic mistakes but they're easily fixed. Keep writing and keep doing what you do. Even if you seem to have no supporters, even if you just don't have any more inspiration, know that people do read your stories.

People stop writing because they find no new followers, no new favorites, no new readers, no new reviews. Honestly, that is the exact opposite of what you should do. I always look for the stories that were last updated so that I don't get left hanging, and if you don't update, how are people supposed to find your story? Even if you hate your last chapter, even if you aren't satisfied, help will always be given at to those who ask for it!

Reviews...favorites...follows..those aren't the only things that are important. As you write, as you read, you should improve a bit more on writing and coming up with ideas. I've suffered having to write essays in school for years and now I simply type what I feel on the spot, no planning, and it just spews out of me. The best writers feel completely natural when they write their story because it comes from their own feelings. But don't feel bad if you don't have that, since few do. I'm not even close to that(I actually hate writing).

The thing I hate most is people giving up and never finishing their stories. If it was a series of separate oneshots, fine. But I can't stand when someone has a story with a plot and a story line and never getting to the end. It drives me crazy. So never give up, for mine and tons of other readers' sake.

I love you guys! Writers and Readers alike, even those who don't read this. I still love you guys :)

* * *

By the way, Merry Christmas, and I'm available for Beta reading. Just PM or review and ask!

Any new ideas guys?


	8. FMW: Frequently Misspelled words

Once again, hello. I really want to thank you for all the reviews, favorites, follows. I didn't expect to get as many as I did, and I hope you know its you that keeps me writing. Thanks!

* * *

"Percy! You spelled my name wrong!"

"Blame my dyslexia!"

"I have it too, Seaweed Brain. And I do just fine."

"But you're Wise Girl for a reason!"

"Still. You don't get cookies until you correct all the misspelled words."

**_(::) (::) (::)_**

_"_Did you just type up cookies in bold in your story?"

"Yes I did. NOBODY takes away my cookies. NOBO- ow! Annabethhhh!"

"Well, if you remember when we were thirteen, I AM Nobody."

"...Not fair, Wise Girl."

"Correct your mistakes, Seaweed Brain."

* * *

**4\. FMWAH-Frequently misspelled words and homophones.**

There is almost nothing more annoying than enjoying this good fanfic then getting thrown off with a misspelled word. It's SO annoying. It just distracts the reader for a second, and you don't want that. You want readers to get lost in your story, to cry when a character dies, to sob when their favorite character gets scratched.

Now homophones are words that sound the same, but are spelled differently. Here are a few and their differences.

**Their,** as in somebody's possession,  
**There**, as in over there/that way,  
**They're,** or they are.

**Our,** like mine and his and hers and hers and his all at once,  
**Are**, as in are you there or who are you.

**Its and it's.** There's a difference. Its item is an animal's(usually an animal at least) item. It's is it is. Like it is mine. It's mine. Not its mine.

**Too, to, and two.** I cannot stress how important this one is. Two is a number, that one usually isn't mistaken for another. Too, like over or _too _much, then there's to. I sent this to that place. Over _to _somewhere. Or I want to. Or to be or not to be. I see so many people use "too" instead, and it annoys me to death. A lot of things annoy me.

So here are some words that I've seen often misspelled or accidentally substituted for another word and their correct spellings. As I can't list all the words(that would be called a dictionary), I can't correct all the misspellings in the world, but I hope you never misspell any of these words again.

**Definitely/Defiantly.** These are actually two different words that mean two different things, so be careful with these because spell check will not find it.

**Accept/Except.** Same here, spell check won't find this. Accept is to take willingly, and except is everything BUT something. Not including.

**A lot**. A lot is actually two words, but if you write 'alot' in your fanfiction it's not as annoying because we're used to seeing it spelled that way.

**Believe. **Its just spelled that way, not beleive.

**Conscious. **Not consensus, not consious, C-o-n-s-c-i-o-u-s.

**Jewelry.** Not jewelery, not jewellery(unless you're british).

**Necessary. **One of the most frequently misspelled words. I remember we had a state test that required sixth graders to spell it correctly and it took points off of almost everyone. How some people spell it: necesary, neccessary, neccesary.

**Aunt. Ant. **Seriously guys, I shouldn't have to say this. But I once saw someone write "I saw an Aunt!" or something. I mentally facepalmed.

**Address.** It's not 'adress'. I put this on here because I myself make this mistake a lot.

**Believe. Believes. **Often spelled beleive or something. I've seen some weird mistakes

**Hoard, Horde. **There is no "hord". That is simply not a word. Hoard=a hoard of treasure/ a large collection of_ inanimate objects_. A hoarder(me)= someone who collects everything, much of which is completely useless. Horde is like, a horde of soldiers, a large collection of _people_.

* * *

So I'll keep adding on as I go, tell me some words I need to add in the reviews!

And I need to _address_ something that almost every author writes about- why I haven't posted much.

The first reason is because I mostly use my ipad mini on my bed and it's harder to upload on that instead of my computer, but my computer happens to be on the other side of the house...long story short, I'm too lazy to get out of my bed.

Also, stress. If eighth grade is this stressful, I'm dreading high school. I might sound crazy by saying this, but I am extremely disappointed in myself because I have a B. Not a b+, or a b-, a B. And it's definitely not good. So I've been spending a lot of my time trying to unsuccessfully bring that up.

Then, I was also working on this chapter, and I've been spending my time trying to read through fanfics to find some of these words.

Lastly, I'm simply out of good things to write...if you have anything, you know what to do.

Bye! Thanks! Etc...


	9. Lessons From a Sixth Grade Me

Hey guys! Thanks for helping me out with everything, the favorites, Follows, etc. I will continue this story as long as i find new things to talk about. Thanks!

I want to thank Mr. Widen for teaching me all that stuff. A lot in here is word for word from his archetypes packet, his archetypes timeline. If you search up Jesper Widen, you'll probably find a man who guides hikers up mountains. Or a news report of a man who climbed Mr. Whitney...on crutches. Yep. That's him. Thank you so much, we love you!

For all the AUs out there:

* * *

**9\. Lessons From My Sixth Grade Language Arts Teacher**

Archetypes

If I learned anything from my all time favorite language arts teacher, its that every character has a role and every good character or good main character has some of the same things in common. The different roles, they're called _the archetypes_. Unfortunately, I didn't save my stuff from sixth grade, so this is what I found online.

**The Hero:**

"The journey of many heroes is the separation from a family or tribe, equivalent to the child sense of separation from the mother. The Hero archetype represents the ego's search for identity and wholeness. In a sense we become the hero. We project ourselves into the hero's psyche and we see the world through his/her eyes. Heroes need some admirable qualities so that we want to be like them. The one who grows the most through the course of this story is most likely the hero."

The hero have certain traits: A rough beginning(usually a deceased or hurt family member), a main problem or mental trouble besides the villain, and a certain thought process in the beginning of a book that changes by the end. All Heroes should develop and change in some ways. Percy, for example, accepted his parentage, became an amazing fighter, etc.

Examples:Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Clary

**Ally:**

A helper, a friend, or just somebody that the heroes encounter and take with them on their journey. They may supply information or skills that the Hero does not already have.

Examples: Grover,Annabeth, Hermione, Ron, Simon

**Mentor: Wise old man or woman**

"Mentor figures, whether encountered in dreams, fairy tales, myths, or screenplays, stand for the hero's highest aspirations. This archetypes is closely related to the image of a parent;however, many heroes seek out mentors because their own parents are inadequate role models. Mentors usually have some type of gift. It may be a magic weapon, an important key or clue, some magical medicine or food, or a life-saving piece of advice."

Examples: Chiron, Dumbledore, Luke(Mortal Instruments)

**Shadow: **

"It represents the energy of the dark side, the unexpected, unrealized or rejected aspects of something. The negative face of the shadow in stories is projected onto characters called villains, antagonists, enemies, monsters, demons, devils, evil aliens, etc. The function of the Shadow in drama is to challenge the heroes and give them a worthy opponent in the struggle. They create conflict and bring out the best in the heroes by putting them into life-threatening situations"

Examples:Luke(PJO), Snape or Draco

**Shapeshifter:**

"People often have trouble grasping the elusive archetype of the shapeshifter, perhaps because its very nature is to be shifting and unstable. These characters appear to change constantly form the Hero's point of view. The shapeshifter serves the dramatic function in bringing doubt and suspense to the story. When Heroes keep asking,"Are they Allies or Shadows?" Shapeshifters are generally present"

Examples: Luke(Percy Jackson), Ethan Nakamura, Snape, Luke(Mortal Instruments)

**Villain:**

This one is pretty obvious. They are the main cause of conflict on the Hero, the antagonist, and opposes the Hero by challenging and testing him/her.

Examples:Kronos, Gaia, Voldemort, Valentine

**Herald: **

The bringer of news, often a new force will appear as Act One to bring a challenge to the Hero. Up until then, Heroes have typically "gotten by" somehow. They have handled an imbalanced life through a series of defenses or coping mechanisms. Then all at once some new energy enters the story that makes it impossible for the Hero to simply get by any longer. A new person, condition, or information shifts the hero's balance, and nothing will ever be the same. A call to adventure or inciting incident has been delivered, often by a character who manifests the archetype of the herald.

Examples: Grover, Hogwarts letter, Clary's mom killed and taken to the Institute

**Threshold Guardians:**

All heroes encounter obstacles on the road to adventure. At each gateway to a new world there are powerful guardians at the threshold, placed to keep the unworthy from entering. The present a menacing face to the Hero, but if properly understood, they can be overcome, bypassed, or even turned into Allies. Threshold Guardians are usually not the main villains or antagonists in the stories. Often they are lesser things hired to guard access to the thief's headquarters. When Heroes meet one of these characters, they must solve a puzzle or complete an action to continue their journey.

Examples: The Minotaur, Quirrell, the Basilisk, getting chosen by the Goblet of Fire, etc, Entering the Institute, seeing through the glamours.

So those are some of the Archetypes, and each story should have one.

* * *

Plot Paradigm.

This is what each story should have in its plot, I suppose, in this specific order. Sometimes it's different for a series, but in almost every single story, they have this.

**Beginning**

**Inciting Incident:** Something that calls the character to action, near the threshold guardian. Percy brought to camp, the prophecy, Hagrid brings Harry to Hogwarts and discovers the sorcerer's stone, Clary brought to the Institute

**PP1-Midpoint**

Right after the PP1(Which I had forgotten what it stood for), all the way to the midpoint, it is what's called the Learning phase. 3 main events where the character learns something or something main happens here.

**Midpoint:**

Something big, the confrontation, should happen here. Maybe something that starts the battles.

**Midpoint-PP2**

This is the Testing Phase. The battles, things the hero does that shows they have learned and will get past this, but things that will also push the hero to the limits.

**False Victory:**

When it looks like everything's cleared, when they have a little fun.

**Disaster:**

Everything's fine and well, then BOOM, something major happens. Something that the hero had just gotten used to having or not having is flipped around. They lose it or gain it.

**Darkest Moment:**

After the disaster. The protagonist is worried, the hero's going through dark times, asked to do something he or she doesnt want to but he knows he has to, or maybe he has to confront the thing they won or lost.

**Resolution-**

**Climax:**

The conflict is almost solved, or being solved, something's happening. The story's almost finished! The conflict is almost over!

**Denouement****:**

Pronounced dey-noo-mah. It's french, I think. Basically, the story is over. The conclusion. The end. Percabeth kiss. CELEBRATION!

* * *

I know this is fanfiction Percy already went through everything, so this is more for the AUs. The stories that only have a names and personalities of characters, maybe not even the personalities, almost completely a new story. This is for you.

Love you!


	10. The Tone

**Hi guys. I'm sorry it's been a while but I've been loaded with stress and worry about school and losing my ipad and stuff and I..ugh im so sorry**

**But the good news is, I'm back! Thank you to whoever is reading this;you mean a lot to me.**

**So...here we go.**

**Disclaimer:You know**

* * *

**10\. Tone**

So the tone of the story is kind of how the sentences...feel, and the style of the sentences. Okay, okay, tones are not a real thing, I just made it up, but it sounds professional. It's there, I just simply gave it a name. I have no idea how to describe it, so I made a short list(as always) of the top "Tones" I see.

1\. The Formal Tone

The formal tone, the old tone, the fancy tone, whatever. It characteristically has no contractions whatsoever and has abnormally long words that come with a good vocabulary. Unfortunately, in using the fancy vocab, authors often misspell or misuse them, so be careful and don't write a long word that you don't understand just for a fancier sounding story.

Formal tones kind of sound like, "Annabeth was not allowed to go to the ball. Not now, not ever, according to her horrid stepmother. All she wanted was to once again rest her eyes upon the face of the beloved prince Percy."

Something fancy and formal. Be careful when you use this though. Just because the story is about princesses does not mean it has to sound formal. Only their speech does, not the whole story. Also, don't use it too much in action fanfictions. Usually you would use this speech in an angsty/deep/sad/touching/romantic story.

2\. The Talking-to-you tone

Its the tone I'm using right now, simply. Point of view tone. Portrays the character's inner thoughts and real personality. Uses the words "I" and "me".

3\. The You're-Talking- to-me tone

These are the stories that feature "you" as an OC. The "You walk through the border to Camp, greeted by your friends" Features "You" and "Your"

4\. The normal tone

This tone is generally third person, stating facts and commentary as well as what they did, etc. Just...normal.

What NOT to do

1\. OMG CAPS LOCK ALL LETTERS IT GETS REALLY ANNOYING

2\. tlk in txting language like omgs

3\. Use abbreviations(did I say that before?)

4\. No slang or street talk or whatever like, "yo, dude percy just did this"

5\. Unless the character is saying those

Oh, and lastly, make sure that** _the tone of the story stays constant throughout the entire story_.**

* * *

I know, I know. Chapters are shorter and shorter. I'm sorry guys, I'm out of ideas. Comment some ideas or just feedback and maybe, just maybe, I'll write a few new chapters. And don't forget, I'm always available if you want me to read a fanfic of yours and help/edit!

-PJGG


	11. Short For

So apparently I actually hadn't done anything about abbreviations, and so this chapter was made mostly due to Formerly 858. Thank you all so much for your kind reviews!

* * *

**11.1 Abbreviations**

All you need to know about this is...don't. Just don't do abbreviations. If someone in your story says, "Oh my gods," write, "Oh my gods," not,"omg". And while we're on the subject of "Oh my gods," please do not write, "Ohmygods". If you want them to be kind of rushed, just write something like, _"Oh my gods," Piper said in a rushed voice. _

Don't use etc., brb, gtg, or any of that, unless a character is texting another character, and if so, make sure it's clear that they are texting.

Abbreviated names:

Usually these are used in the summary. Never, ever, ever, use them in the actual story, unless some friend of Percy's suddenly decides to call him PJ. Then there are the ships. Harry Potter fanfics in particular like using the characters' initials to signify who the characters are and who they're with. HG/RW would be Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, for example. HP/GW. These are canon, and therefore easy to recognize, but can you recognize DM/AG(which is canon but kind of off to the side) or LL/NL or even SM/RW? Those are Draco Malfoy/ Astoria Greengrass, Luna Lovegood/Neville Longbottom, and Scorpio Malfoy/Rose Weasley. Not so easy now, is it? So if you can, please write out the names, not the initials.

Now I understand that summaries only allow a certain amount of characters, and so if you really have to, I suppose you should use the initials, but if you have space, just write their first name and last initial at the very least.

* * *

**11.2 User Etiquette **

I know, this isn't really something that has to do with writing, but it is something that should be addressed. User Etiquette has to do with the way you treat others or how you should act online in general. That means proper ratings and warnings about any inappropriate content in your story, and maybe even which chapter it's on if it's not a main part of the story.

Now, this doesn't really just apply to the writers. Though there are few who would really comment like this, please do not comment with any inappropriate suggestions or bad language, including swear words and themes. But it's not just the extremes. It's also leaving any bad comments in general, the ones that tell the author how you don't like the story, or anything like that. And I don't mean constructive criticism, I mean just comments that just say "This is really bad" without any way to improve the story, because each of you readers have a chance to change the author's writing for the better and improve it, giving them tips and advice and even just boosting their confidence. It's difficult to become a writer;you're scared that it's not going to go well before the process even begins and you give it to a publisher, then you face dozens of rejections from the publishers that you send your story to, having to wait patiently for months or even years before one will even deeply consider you. Many fanfiction writers are aspiring authors practicing for the future, getting better, improving, and even just a happy comment like, "I love this," will keep their spirits up. And the best thing is, it doesn't cost anybody anything, while a negative comment could cost a writer everything. So please support those around you, and if you have nothing good to say, don't say it!

* * *

Thanks! Please review, comment, give suggestions, etc!


	12. Synonym, Equivalent, Same

Yeah. Its not mine

* * *

"Percy, look at this paragraph!"

"What?"

_Percy is awesome, he awesomely pulled out his awesome sword and awesome shield and kicked the bad dude in the chest before awesomely chopping his(or is it her? Its a monster, who knows) head off._

"You used "Awesome" 6 times in one sentence. Plus, you don't even _have_ a shield."

"So? Plus, I don't need a shield, because I'm awesome like that"

"Oh my gods, Percy.."

* * *

**12.1 Synonyms-Equivalents**

Repetition is usually a huge problem for me. I tend to use the same few words again, and it gets kind of boring. So here are some alternate(a synonym for synonym) words that could be used for some commonly used phrases.

**A Name**\- Do you ever use a name too often? Like, Percy does this, and then Percy does this and then this, or he did this or him and you have way too many of all of them? Change a few "Percy"s into "him"s or "he"s, make sure it's clear who you're talking about, then, if you STILL have too many of them, just describe him a little.

_The Son of Poseidon, the hero, the demigod, the black haired boy, the green-eyed delinquent_(good fanfic on this website, btw),or something like that.

Just make sure it's clear which demigod, if there are two sons of Poseidon, which son, etc.

**Emotions**\- Emotions are often used to describe a person, and young or new writers may write something simple, like,

_Leo was happy. _

_Leo was sad. _

_Leo was nervous._

Instead, write:

_Leo was delighted, he jumped up and down excitedly, waiting to uncover his new invention.  
Tears rolled down Leo's face. He sobbed into his blanket, thinking about Calypso  
Leo chewed on his lip as butterflies fluttered in his stomach. Today was the day._

And that's-simply put-boring. So, here are some synonyms or ways to describe emotions(some of them are just ways to portray how they feel, not actual synonyms)

_Happy-_Ecstatic(extremely jump-up-and-down happy), bright, glowing, cheerful, delighted, eyes shining, the corners of his/her mouth curved upwards(instead of smiled)

_Sad-_Tears rolling down their face..., depressed(do not use this lightly!), down, whimpering(usually for animals, but you could use this on Percy too), lip trembling, trembling, sobbing

_Nervous_\- Chewing on his/her lip, eyes darting, leg bouncing up and down(can also be used for impatience), butterflies fluttering in his/her stomach, eyes wide, like a deer caught in headlights(more shocked than nervous)

_Pretty(adj.)-_Beautiful, charming, cute, elegant, fine, gorgeous, appealing, exquisite

_Embarrassed-_Cheeks burning, head ducked down

_Cold_\- Shivering, blue lips, pale, rubbing arms for warmth

_Tired-_Rubbed his eyes, blinking, eyes drooping, exhausted, spent

These are just a few common words I thought of off the top of my head, comment with other words you'd like to see.

So, it really isn't difficult coming up with these. Read more, expand your vocabulary a bit. The more you do, the less you need to use my next step:the Thesaurus. The Thesaurus is a magical little essay lifesaver that allows you to search up words and give you all the synonyms it connects with the word you used. Be careful when using the synonyms from the thesaurus though-many may not be words you know, and therefore do not know how to use. If you find a word you like but you have no idea what it means, or just any word, search up the words. Usually they have a little sentence under it, using the word in a sentence. But those are just for single words. If you wanted to "show, not tell"(in my 1st grade teacher's words, it makes a lot more sense now), you'd have to use one of those descriptions. But don't worry, it's easy! What I do, is I imagine myself feeling that same emotion. Then I imagine myself acting on that emotion. Basically I act it out. I pretend i'm sleepy and my eyes drop, I relax, I blink and rub my eyes. And then you just use whatever you did in a sentence to describe it.

* * *

So yeah, that was today's lesson. I guess. Comment with whatever. I'm tired, but I need to finish a paragraph about how Fahrenheit 451 shows that individuality is beneficial. Eighth grade, guys, Eighth grade.


	13. Understand your own character!

Nope, PJO isn't mine. If you haven't noticed, I've gotten lazy with the ANs at the beginning.

* * *

**13\. The Creator**

Now, I've done a chapter on Mary Sues and Character Roles, but this chapter...is not about that. This chapter is about OCs, or Original characters(I'm pretty sure that's what it stands for).

Now, _you_ are the "Creator" of the characters, and you are free to do whatever you want with them. Just please, do not create the "Mary Sues" I described in Chapter 4. That aside, this chapter is specifically about your understanding of the character that you have created .

People are deep;each person has their own faults and physical looks and personalities, so here is a list that I found online in case you haven't seen it. This will definitely help when you make an OC, and you will be able to think of ideas and be able to see from their point of view a lot easier, which I find is important. When an event in a story happens, you want to be able to imagine what the character would do and their thoughts about the event. If there is only one OC, I tend to base their personalities off of me so that it's easy for me to see what they would do in that situation.

Keep in mind, this could also be useful with character's in AU worlds.

Character Name:

Age:

Appearance:

What do you know about this character now that s/he doesn't yet know?

What is this character's greatest flaw?

What do you know about this character that she or he would never admit?

What is this character's greatest asset?

If this character could choose a different identity who would he or she be?

In what or who does this character have the greatest faith?

What music does his character's sing to when no one is around?

What is this character's favorite movie?

Does this character have a favorite article of clothing? Favorite shoes?

Does this character have a vice?(a kind of bad action they tend to take) Name it.

This character's favorite person (living or dead).

What is this character's secret wish?

What is his character's proudest achievement?

Describe this character's most embarrassing moment.

What is this character's deepest regrets?

What is this character's favorite greatest fear?

Describe this character's most devastating moment.

What is this character's greatest achievement?

What is this character's greatest hope

Does character have an obsession? Name it.

What is this character's greatest disappointment?

What is this character's worst nightmare?

Whom does this character most wish to please? Why?

Describe this character's mother.

Describe this character's father.

If she or he had to choose with whom what this character preferred to live?

Where does this character fall in birth order (oldest sibling/youngest sibling/2nd oldest)? How does this affect them?(I did a science fair on this; oldest tend to be most responsible, best grades, but feel more burdened, only children have greater pride and possibly more protective of parents as well as are smarter and more fun/crazy as a result of a need to entertain themselves with no siblings to play with, middle children are peaceful and/or moderators, calm, shy sometimes, many are introverted. Youngest are funny and joke around the most. Isn't exact, but these are just a few traits that they tend to have)

Describe this character siblings or other close relatives.

Describe this character's bedroom. Include three cherished items.

What is this character's birthday? How does this character manifest traits of his or her astrological sign? (You might need to start at the zodiac for this)

If this character had to live in seclusion for six months, what six items would he or she bring?

Why is this character angry/what makes him/her angry?

What calms this character?

Describe a recurring dream or nightmare this character might have.

List the choices (not circumstances) that lead this character do his or her current predicament.

List the circumstances over which this character has no control.

What wakes this character in the middle of the night?

How would a stranger describe his character?

What does this character resolve to do differently every morning?

If this character knew he/she had exactly one month to live, what would he or she do?

Who depends on this character? Why?

How would a dear friend or relative described his character?

What is this character's most notable physical attribute?

What is this character hiding from him or herself?

Write one additional thing about your character.

You may not be able to answer all of these, and you could probably skip a few. But remember; whatever you make up is correct. It _is_ your character. And no, you do not need to add all of these in your story, but you may want to. I could answer almost all of these about Annabeth and probably Percy too. They even mentioned Percy's zodiac sign in the series! I suggest you take these into consideration when you write, and make sure it's consistent. I would even suggest listing all of these down for reference.

I honestly never know how to end a chapter so...Taa daa!(shi. Tadashi. Sorry, I love Big Hero 6.)

* * *

Thanks for reading! If i missed anything, let me know. And I _do _read ALL of the comments and replies and I won't judge, so don't hesitate to ask anything!


	14. I'll Miss You

Hello people.

I know I haven't updated in a while. I know I havent't done anything at all in a while.

I have no excuses.

This is the final chapter of this "advice column" and here's some general advice on how to write a good story.

Revise, revise, revise! That means reading your stories over and over again until it's perfect. My own perfectionist English teacher told all of us to read it aloud. You really rake out the problems that way. For my other story(it's a oneshot), I've Seen You Before, I really liked writing it because I liked the story itself. I would go back and reread it, long after it was published and each time, even on the 4th time reading it, I would find a simple spelling mistake or add a detail or clear a point up until I saw no more mistakes.

All the issues I've included in this story are technicality issues. In real life, in real stories, that's not all there is. There is a climax, a story line, a problem, all of that stuff. There are details, the right amount of details so that your reader doesn't get bored with all of the unneccessary comments but is able to get a detailed mind picture. The storyline is the hardest of all to make, and I can't teach you that because I can't write one myself. There is still a lot to learn after that, and you learn it by reading.

Stories are the best if you write them from your heart. Authors have told me they wrote from personal experience. An event that happened to Percy in an AU is the same thing that happened to the author. Annabeth has the same abilities, strengths, or skills as the author. Write from personal experience, because not only do they feel more realistic because of your extentended knowledge on the subject, but you also have more depth to it than if you had written it as if you were Annabeth but you don't have the same ideas and feelings as Annabeth would, which would make it sound a little out of character. But because you've experienced these emotions, events, whatever, it sounds natural.

Sometimes you lose interest in things. That's okay. Leave a note to your faithfuls, like I should have done. Don't leave them hanging for forever like I did. As I move on to my next story, if I do decide to publish it, I'll be writing from my heart. And maybe I'll stay a little longer. We'll see.

But that's not all I meant by writing from your heart. The best stories are the ones that you want to write. When you lose interest, the story isn't as good because your heart isn't in it. Don't always write something that pops into your mind. Like 'I've Seen You Before'. The story line had been in my head and pushed aside countless times before I decided that if I thought about it this often, then I must really like this story. And I did. So write what you like, from your heart.

"A Dream is A Wish Your Heart Makes," a famous Disney Cinderella song. But I find that a dream also makes for some of the most creative ideas I've ever had, all in vivid detail. And maybe it's because you wish for it to happen, and it does, all by your own hand, making it all the more satisfying. Just remember to write hem down as soon as possible.

And last but not least, if you aren't sure about something, search it up. It takes thirty seconds. I've seen dozens of amazing stories that have written "bemused" and used it as not amused, a kind of -_- look(never ever use a face in a story, by the way). Bemused actually means confused. Use things the right way or don't use them at all.

Take your reviewers' advice, even if it's a correction for a spelling error in the first chapter. Go back and fix it. It doesn't take much effort, and makes it easier for new readers to enjoy.

As I end this chapter, and ultimately, this story, I hope you have learned something. I've discovered things of my own as I jump into new fanfictions completely different from this one. I love every single one of you that helped me, by following, favoriting, giving me things and ideas to talk about, or just telling me that you enjoyed it. While I will be deleting this story in a few weeks, maybe just before my school starts(mid-late august), just in time for me to start my new story, I hope you all keep writing. I hope your writing improves to your satisfaction. I'm always here if you need it, for a word of advice, to get something off your chest, or to read your story and scour for any technical mistakes. All it takes is a PM or a review on my other stories.

Stay in contact.

Iris, done.


End file.
